Two more 5K's

After that last post I realize I'd neglected to describe two more 5K's I ran earlier in the year. The first was the Revlon Run/Walk for Women on May 9. The appeal of this event was that it was run all around USC, starting at Exposition Park and ending inside the Coliseum. Sweet! Not only that, but the finish was actually through the tunnel near the end zone that the USC Trojans football team enters through before each half of a game! Wow! Running around our old college apartments and whatnot was a lot of fun, too.

What it wasn't as great for was running fast. This is a huge fundraising event, and there were 10 times more people than I'd ever seen at a run. (The picture doesn't come close to giving you an idea of the crowds.) It didn't start on time, and for the first mile or so it was hard to keep running due to the crowds. Weaving in & out kind of worked, but I was also concerned about twisting an ankle on the roads/curbs/drains/planter boxes that we were navigating. Not such a big deal to take it slower, except that I'd committed to a goal of a 5K PR sometime this year. I know now that this wasn't going to be the race for that, but I didn't understand it then.

Just the same, it was a fun race. I had some good music in my ears to enjoy while reminiscing about the location. As I thought, running into the Coliseum at the end was a real thrill, and worth the price of admission right there. They had some sort of automated camera taking pictures of the crowds as they crossed the finish line, but I couldn't find myself in them later. My 33:08 time (10:40 pace) reflected the issue of the crowds, that's all. At the end I got to go up into the stands while waiting for Candy & Molly to finish. A great band was playing at the big party. The only weird thing was the skimpiness with snacks at the end. Quartered bagels were only for some private group?! We got corn chips instead?! As I said, weird.

I'd convinced my buddy Shawn at work to run this, too. He's a much better (faster & farther) runner than I am, but he hadn't been to any organized races before. As he's almost anti-social, that's not surprising. I'd convinced him to run a different 5K with me earlier in the spring, but then our vacation to Washington DC interfered with those plans. This was to be our make-up event. It's kind of too bad I picked this one, as I don't know if it was a good experience for him. As someone that's not fond of crowds, this could've been the worst. Nonetheless, he struggled through the traffic to get here & park. Then he did what I should've done--positioned himself near the start of the race as one of the few that cared about their time. As a result, he didn't encounter the same crowds I did while running. He finished fast, got his goodies and immediately left. Figures. We could've talked in the stands at the end, but instead we never saw each other.

The following week I ran another 5K. This was one right here in Santa Clarita for a local cancer charity, the Brenda Mehling Cancer Fund Fight It! 5K. Instead of getting up early and driving 40 minutes I would be able to almost sleep in and just drive 5 minutes to our Central Park. I wouldn't normally opt for two races on successive weekends, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up (and it was too late to cancel the previous race). Since this was kind of a "bonus" race for me, I didn't take it super-seriously--I stayed up late the night before.

The race started at 8:30 or so, and unlike other races in cooler locations it was already hot & dusty at that time. I finished in 30:28, a 9:48 pace. There's nothing wrong with that but at the time I was disappointed with how overheated I was, how I needed to walk more than I wanted, and how I couldn't managed to finish within 30 minutes. With the benefit of hindsight, though, I think I did ok and I'm definitely glad I tried it.